The player can kill, threaten, rob, carjack, and otherwise force other gangs out of Saints territory.[1] For example, objectives in the tutorial mission include hijacking a car, killing a policeman, driving to Forgive and Forget to lose the police pursuit, and mugging a Civilian.[3]

There are Fast Food restaurants that restore health, gun stores for weapons, and spray paint shops to decoy the player when pursued by the police. An on-screen Mini Map displays nearby locations, and there is a larger citywide map on the Pause Menu that does not show detailed locations.[1] The city is split into zones,[2] and the game's mission objectives largely consist of driving to locations and shooting things.[4] Mission examples include assassinations, bomb-planting, and robbery.[2]

A knife, called the "pig sticker", is received early in the game, in a level where the player stabs a policeman near a police station.[1] Firearms that feature auto-aim are received later, as well as sequences using a sniper rifle.

Cash is earned by completing missions and robbing Civilians, and us used to buy food, weapons, spray paint, and accessories for the character's Crib.[1]

The player can steal, carjack, mug, shoot, stab, and kill computer controlled enemies and Civilians. There are special for robbing, stealing, and carjacking.[names?] The game features minigames for robbing pedestrians, stealing, and hijacking vehicles.[4]

While robbing, the player taps happy and angry face icons to terrorize the victim into giving more money.[1] During Theft, a Tetris clone lets the player fit more items into the truck,[4] and the Hostage minigame lets the player earn more money for scaring the captive passenger by driving at high speeds.[1]

When driving, control options include "directional steering" where "left" and "right" controls the vehicle in that direction (like a steering wheel) and "up" accelerates, and another option where the player presses a button corresponding to the desired direction.[1] The player targets enemies by pressing the pound key and then pressing "5" repeatedly, which also leaves the character vulnerable.[2] Players can run faster than the cars can drive.[3]

It was developed by G5 Entertainment, where it was known as "Project Sienna" in development and was first announced in June 2008,[5] and published by THQ Wireless on the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform.[2] The game was built on their proprietary Talisman engine, which G5 Senior Producer Mike Zakharov said in 2008 enabled the game to have a big environment with many things to do as "one of the most complex modern mobile games".[5]

Compared to Saints Row (mobile), the Saints Row 2 mobile game fixed issues of small sprites and too much vehicle traffic. Additionally, the developers changed the camera perspective from directly overhead to a slight angle.[3]